Summer Throwback - “Back To The Future” Celebrates 40th Anniversary This Year!

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the beloved classic “Back to the Future.” On July 3, 1985, one of the best sci-fi/time travel movies was released and also ended up becoming one of the biggest hits of the 80s. Even though the entire trilogy is highly entertaining, I will only be talking about the 1985 film for this review.

In the 1985 sci-fi classic, small town California teen Marty McFly is thrown back into the 50s when an experiment by his eccentric scientist friend Doc Brown goes awry.

Traveling through time in a modified DeLorean car, Marty encounters young versions of his parents, and must make sure they fall in love or he’ll cease to exist.

Even more dauntingly, Marty has to return to his own time and save the life of Doc Brown.

This 1985 classic is an all time favorite of the 80s that will still keep viewers entertained from beginning to end. Even today, the movie’s timeless story can still keep you highly intrigued and its blend of comedy, adventure and science fiction is still amazing.

There are quite a few stand out moments scattered throughout this classic that are truly iconic. The DeLorean’s first ride as Doc Brown demonstrates the time-traveling device to Marty is still awesome to watch and I still find it amusing when Marty makes it to 1955 and we see how Marty tries to see how his town was in the 1950s.

The Johnny B. Goode sequence where Marty McFly performs at a high school dance is a major highlight of the movie and the Clock Tower sequence towards the end is highly captivating to this day. That entire sequence can still be dramatic and even a little suspenseful as Marty is literally racing against time to get the DeLorean struck by lightning to get back home.

“Back to the Future” also delivers quite a few humorous moments throughout the film. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd have great on-screen chemistry and their scenes together are simply great. The scenes that show Marty interacting with his younger parents are also great and funny sometimes … Imagine meeting your parents in high school!

With its clever storytelling, amazing visual effects, memorable characters and moments of humor and heart, “Back to the Future” is an 80s classic that will be beloved for decades to come!

Trivia: The rights to the film and its sequels are owned by director Robert Zemeckis and producer Bob Gale. In a 2015 interview, Zemeckis maintained that no reboot or remake of the film would be authorized during his or Gale’s lifetime. The initial script of the film was rejected 44 times before it was finally green-lit. 

In the original script, Doc Brown and Marty sell bootleg videos in order to fund the time machine. This plot point was removed at Universal’s request, as they didn’t want to be seen as promoting video piracy.

MPA: Rated PG   (runtime 116 minutes)

You can currently find “Back to the Future” at various PVOD rental services.

• The rights to the film and its sequels are owned by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. In a 2015 interview, Zemeckis maintained that no reboot or remake of the film would be authorized during his or Gale's lifetime.

• The script was rejected 44 times before it was finally green-lit.

• Apparently, Ronald Reagan was amused by Doc Brown's disbelief that an actor like him could become President, so much so that he had the projectionist stop and replay the scene. He also seemed to enjoy it so much that he even made a direct reference of the film in his 1986 State of the Union address, "As they said in the film Back to the Future (1985), 'Where we're going, we don't need roads.'"

• When this movie was previewed for a test audience, Industrial Light & Magic had not completed the final DeLorean-in-flight shot, and the last several minutes of the movie were previewed in black and white. It didn't matter, as the audience roared in approval of the final scene anyway.

• The inspiration for the film largely stems from Bob Gale discovering his father's high school yearbook and wondering whether he would have been friends with his father as a teenager. Gale also said that if he had the chance to go back in time, he would really go back and see if they would have been friends.

• In December 2007, it was selected by the United States Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."